It surprised him to see everyone shaking hands with one another. 'No novelty,' he wrote, 'struck me more vividly during my stay there than the equality of conditions.' Coming from a society still heavily influenced by its aristocratic heritage, de Tocqueville was astounded at how much equality had become a part of American life. De Tocqueville set out to find the answers. Specifically, he wanted to find out about the role of the American citizen in this new democratic society. De Tocqueville's relentless curiosity urged him to probe into every area of American culture, but it was the American people that interested him the most. American Equalityĭuring his travels which took him from the East Coast to the Mississippi River, de Tfocqueville filled 14 notebooks with his observations, thoughts, and interviews with over 200 Americans. From de Tocqueville's point of view, it would also be a journey into the future. It was at this time that he and his fellow nobleman, de Beaumont, arranged their trip to America. Early 19th-century political events in France convinced de Tocqueville that aristocratic government in Europe was doomed, soon to be replaced by democracy. Both escaped execution, the fate of many aristocrats at the time.ĭe Tocqueville studied law and became a low-level judge in the French court system. De Tocqueville's parents had been imprisoned earlier during the French Revolution. Much more than a mere record of his travels, Democracy in America, in the words of one modern historian, turned out to be 'perhaps the greatest commentary ever written about any culture by any person at any time.'Īlexis de Tocqueville was born into an aristocratic family in 1805, the year after Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned emperor of France. In 1840 the two volumes became one book which de Tocqueville titled Democracy in America. De Tocqueville spent the next eight years writing two volumes on his observations. America was such a young nation, and most Europeans had only a vague idea about its unique democratic system.Īfter traveling thousands of miles over a period of nine months, the young men returned to France. However, even before leaving France, de Tocqueville and de Beaumont decided to spend most of their time observing American democracy in action. Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont, both minor French court officials, had been sent by their government to study new experimental prisons in America. On May 9, 1831, two young Frenchmen sailed into the harbor of Newport, Rhode Island and began a remarkable journey through the United States. 'A great democratic revolution is taking place in our midst.

ELECTION CENTRAL The Citizen in de Tocqueville's America

De tocqueville democracy in america